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Government’s claim they reduce our carbon footprint is a red herring

Vancouver Sun columnist Stephen Hume.

Photograph by: Diana Nethercott
, VANCOUVER SUN

The more I dig into this compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) file, the more Wizard of Oz-like the federal policy seems.

First, there is the earnest claim that it’s all about reducing Canada’s carbon footprint, a red herring that green enthusiasts seem to have swallowed hook, line and sinker.

CFL bulbs are certainly more energy efficient than the incandescent bulbs for which we’re repeatedly told 80 per cent of the energy used to produce light is “wasted” as heat.

However, retired University of B.C. physics professor Hannes Barnard observes that this “wasted” heat contributes to home heating.

Reducing heat from incandescent bulbs is offset by increasing household heat by burning more furnace oil or natural gas, which both increase carbon emissions.

This is corroborated by a 2011 scientific study of CFL efficiency that determined British Columbia, which uses hydroelectricity, will increase its carbon footprint through the transition from incandescent bulbs.

Federal statistics on energy use are equally fascinating.

Residential use accounts for only 17 per cent of the national energy budget. Lighting takes up 11 per cent of this. So, home lighting accounts for less than two per cent of the total national energy budget.

In other words, forcing four million British Columbians to convert to CFL lighting will reduce the carbon footprint by 1.4 per cent of the former energy budget.

But government is simultaneously striving to expand those sectors — industry and transportation — that are almost half the national energy budget and contribute vastly more greenhouse gases.

This seems to me to be a classic case of misplaced priorities.

For example, if the 170 billion barrels of bitumen deemed recoverable in Alberta’s oilsands are burned, Canadians’ annual carbon footprint will grow from 4.5 tonnes per capita to 64 tonnes. Thus, forcing CFL conversions on consumers yields a 1.4 per cent reduction in carbon footprint, while producing and selling bitumen increases it by 1,400 per cent.

Second, there’s the claim that the higher front-end cost of CFL bulbs is offset by longer life at lower energy consumption. Theoretically, swapping in a 13-watt CFL for a 100-watt incandescent bulb will knock $30 off your electricity bill over the 10,000 hours of its lifespan.

A couple of readers did write to say they were happy with the longevity of their CFL bulbs and chastised me for being a Luddite. Most — by a ratio of 20 to one — wrote to complain about premature burnout of expensive bulbs.

It turns out that even CFL manufacturers acknowledge their bulbs will achieve the long life they promise only if they are installed where they can be left on for long periods — a minimum of three hours at a time.

Turn the bulbs on and off just four times for periods of less than 15 minutes — typical for many household uses — and bulb life drops precipitously from 10,000 hours to about 1,500 hours. This is roughly the same lifespan as an incandescent bulb, but at 16 times the replacement cost.

This is good for the producers — China now has 85 per cent of the world CFL manufacturing market — but it looks to me like consumers are getting hosed.

Third, mercury.

Mary Rogers of Richmond, called to recount how a CFL bulb she’d installed in her laundry room lamp exploded. Only later did she learn the federal government’s advice: If a bulb breaks, evacuate the house immediately for at least 15 minutes because of the risk of exposure to toxic mercury.

This is not reassuring if you have babies or toddlers.

If the average Canadian home has 30 light sockets — there are almost 12.5 million households — CFL conversion means introducing 375 million sources of toxic mercury into homes. Yet, in 2011, the federal government passed new regulations restricting the importation of mercury into Canada on grounds there is no safe level of exposure. CFL bulbs containing mercury are exempt because they are deemed of net benefit in reducing the country’s carbon footprint.

Let’s see: The light bulbs we’re now forcing Canadians to abandon turn out to be responsible for only a minuscule share of the country’s carbon footprint compared to the fossil fuel industries where our strategy is for massive expansion and exploitation.

Am I crazy, or are these priorities bizarre contradictions and fair subject for some critical discussion?

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